A tough problem, I'm sure

[Graaaaah]

(First post)
I recently moved into a new house that has a large studio space attached. The prior owner owned a photography studio (Cesar Paredes at Studio Zarpa). Me, being an amateur (stress upon amateur) soundguy, I have absolutely no idea how to work with it. The space itself is 29'x30', and the ceiling is arched, being perhaps 20' high at it's peak. Acoustically what should I be wary of? Have I any hope of accomplishing anything with it? What takes priority in the area of buying stuff for it? (Bear in mind I'm a stupid kid with a minimum wage job). Thanks in advance.

[r0ck1r0ck2]

that space sounds big + fun....
acoustically you could probably do a whole lot worse...
i made quite a few good recordings in a really crappy basement with 8' ceilings...
you have 20' arched ceilings...
not bad...
Here's a quick link to some heavy acoustics reading..
if you pray real hard i'm sure St Ethan will come to your aid....


http://www.ethanwiner.com/acoustics.html

[drumsound]

Get some packing blankets from U-Haul. You can use them to control things that might get out of hand. Have you played any music in the room? How does it sound? Have you recorded anything there? How does that sound? Knowing those things will help in assessing what might help.

I seems like a cool space to me!

[TapeOpLarry]

There's certainly math involved in how a rom with physically work with sound in it, but first play instruments in it to see how it feels. Some cool (I'm not saying great!) rooms are not necessarily perfect. But a GREAT sounding room is a treat, seems I usually find those in larger rooms in studios that have been tweaked a bit! Sometimes for decades.

[lobstman]

If your room is too live, I've done some reasonably effective ghetto treatment with regular rolls of pink insulation from Home Depot stapled to the walls at intervals- the trick is to keep the reflections down but not make it TOO dead. You can even buy some bedsheets at Goodwill and cut them into strips to cover the insulation to make it look less crappy and keep the fiberglass fibers from getting everywhere (like your lungs).

I certainly don't recommend this in place of actual accoustic treatment, but in a pinch it does help.

[myfipie]

I can get even more getto then that! Take some rolls of fluffy fiberglass and keep them in the bag.. Stack them in the corners of the room... This is going to act as a bass trap and as Ethan with tell you "All rooms need as much bass trapping as you can get". For bass trapping you can also use 4" rigid figerglass straddling all corners of the room... For your reflections in the room you would want to use 2" rigid fiberglass with it spaced off the wall 2".. The more 2" panels you use the more dead the room will sound so those are really to taste.

Hope that helps and good luck on the room. It sounds like a bunch of fun!

Glenn

[r0ck1r0ck2]

maybe some diffusors hanging from the center of the ceiling...
apparently the vault will act as a focusing agent...?
but really
you should play something in it first....

could be really cool

[drumsound]

I have a 4'x8' cloud in my live room. It's a frame of 1"x4" with some cool looking material stapled to the inside. I put rolled pink insulation in it and hung it from light chain with nice heavy-duty hooks. $35 bucks and an evening. It made a huge difference in my live room.